My Other Things

Mimi & Eunice's Facebook Page
Because Facebook refuses to make thumbnails of linked horizontal images, I upload each one manually here. It’s the only way to share Mimi & Eunice comics on FB, unfortunately.

M.E.R.C,H.

M.E.R.C,H. stands for Mimi & Eunice Raise Cash, Hopefully. I plan to start with a full-color paperback collection of over 200 comics, probably print-on-demand because Mimi & Eunice don’t yet have wide enough readership to justify advance printing. The more subscribers and readers they get, the more merch will be justified, so please keep sharing, embedding, linking to, and pimping them. Also, if there are any particular strips you’d buy on a mug or T-shirt, please write “MUG!” or “T-SHIRT!” (or any other merch you might want) in its comments section. What kind of merch do you want, anyway? Please leave your merch suggestions here!

8 comments to M.E.R.C,H.

I don’t know about M&E because I’m kind of new to it, but it would be cool if you could make a T-Shirt out of any comic(since they’re so small). It would be like how Texts from last night does it – if you like a particular text (not all of them, but a good bunch), you can order a T-Shirt with that one it.

I don’t know how it’s done, but I’ve almost bought a few, and I don’t even text.

As for moneymaking ideas in general, it’s funny you should mention that, because one of the Sita DVDs I bought last year just got into Westside video by my hand. Ashlyn (the new owner) was talking about buying some T-Shirts, but I had other merchandising ideas for you too – that shirt I bought gets HUGE positive feedback from the community hear every time I wear it.

Yeah, that would be on-demand T-shirt printing. I’m willing to experiment with on-demand book printing, but past experience with on-demand t-shirts hasn’t been so great. They’re extremely expensive and lower quality than silkscreened. That’s why all my “Sita” Tes are silkscreened.

On M&E T-shirt idea would be to put 8 or 12 or 16 strips on one shirt. They could be grouped by theme. There could be an “IP” shirt, and if you’re having an argument with someone about IP you could just point to the relevant strip on your shirt. Same with “Theology.” Maybe someone would buy a “Helmet Wars” shirt….

What you could do is produce a cartoon (or other artwork) to which you provide no license. Moreover, you go so far as to register the work for copyright protection. You then publish this (on your website) with the strict admonition that you give no implicit license for its unauthorised reproduction, indeed, you intend providing no license for anyone else to manufacture copies or otherwise communicate it. You also avow that you will not transfer the copyright.

This copyright protected work acts as a Sword of Damocles to be enjoyed by both you and your fans. If your fans copy it (print it on t-shirts, etc.) and you sue ANY of them for copyright infringement then their finances are in jeopardy as is your reputation.

You can judge your fans’ confidence in your integrity by how much they wilfully and flagrantly infringe your copyright, as per your principled embrace of their infringement (thumbing your nose at the state’s corrupt granting of this unethical privilege to you).

Think of it as providing a safe opportunity for your fans to flagrantly infringe copyright – instead of compounding CC’s insinuation of copyright as an authorial right to be licensed. How can one protest against a privilege unless one disobeys it? Performing acts permitted by license is not disobedience. Owning t-shirts printed under license is not a protest.

No matter how popular it became with the general populace, copyright affianced organisations would be unable to bring themselves to reproduce it. Thus some newspapers would not be able to bring themselves to reproduce the cartoon in any story describing its meteoric rise.

That may indicate that the cartoon itself might need to re-iterate and emphasise the fact that it was most definitely protected by copyright, and not licensed for ANY reproduction by any person or organisation save the copyright holding author.

NB A compulsory license could not be sanctioned since you make the work available to the public on your website.

It’s a sort of reverse emperor’s clothes. The public who recognise copyright’s corrupt glamour are able to cease their belief in it and resume enjoyment of their natural liberty, but those immortal corporations whose continued existence depends upon belief in copyright’s supernatural powers to prevent copying must show a ‘this cartoon cannot be displayed due to licensing issues’ notice.